Onion uthappam

Uthappam / oothappam is a typical Tamil dish, but celebrated all over India. I have seen many people eagerly buying this batter in Indian grocery stores. These batters come as 'ready to make' oothappam mix in dry form or wet batter (fridge isle). That is a very good idea too. But traditionally most of us make it using a few days old dosa batter. Baking soda is added to the dosa batter, just minutes before cooking. It makes the oothappam more porous and soft, just like the way it should be. If we are more concerned we can add 'enos fruit salt' also. The secret to any good idli, dosa, oothapam is bringing the batter to room temperature by leaving it in kitchen counter for few hours (say 2 - 3 hours in cold countries).  If our batter is very good, there won't be any need to add baking soda or fruit salt.  We can find out the fineness of the batter while making the first oothapam :) Click to see my vegetable uthappam too.

'Camp chef' brand cast iron 14 "pizza pan from ebay is the best tawa for dosa too.

Ingredients:

Dosa / idly batter - 2 cup
baking soda - 2 pinch
ghee - 2 tsp (or smart balance butterlike product)
sesame oil - 2 tbsp
onion - a handful for 1 dosa
green chilly - 1 finely chopped 
idly podi - 2 tbsp
curry leaf , cilantro - a handful

Method:

Take required quantity of sour idly batter from fridge. Add baking soda and mix the batter briskly for few times. Let it sit for 1 - 3 hours to bring to room temperature. 
Heat a dosa tawa. Coat the tawa with 2 drops of sesame oil . Sprinkle little water over it.
Using a clean cloth wipe the tawa.
Take a ladle of batter and pour it gently over the tawa and let it spread to a thick but small dosa (6 inch dia. approximately). Reduce the flame to medium heat.
Spread the finely chopped onion, chilly, curry leaf, cilantro over the uthappam. Pour some sesame oil + ghee around and over the dosa.
Strew a tsp idly milagai podi over the uthappam.
(Place a dome shaped lid to cover it. The uthappam should be cooked in that steam to get a spongy texture inside. This step is optional, but I prefer this)

// If needed ,  flip the uthappam and let it cook the other side for less than 30 seconds. Mostly it is not necessary to flip oothappam, as it gets cooked by that cover and steam//. Take out the dosa Again increase the flame, apply oil and repeat the above process to make as many uthappam as we need.

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot with Coconut chutney and sambar.
Once we start making the uthappam, we have to serve it immediately to get that true taste. 

Tips:

Batter : Add a tbsp of besan flour for  every cup of dosa batter to get a golden red uthappam.
Sour dosa batter can only give a delicious uthappam. If its not so, then add some desi yogurt/ buttermilk and leave for a few hours or start preparing immediately.

Vegetable Uthappam

Uthappam / oothappam - a thick spongy version of dosa often made with left over dosa batter and a lot of flavorful toppings to make it irresistible:)

Have you ever got inspired to prepare a dish by a comedy video? Well, I did :)  Hubby and myself started liking this uthappam more than we do normally, only after watching this video. Here the famous Tamil comedy actor Mr.Vadivelu explains a waiter how his uthappam should be made:)
Click to watch that if you can understand Tamil. Otherwise read the next para:)

The video:After ordering the uthappam, Vadivelu explains the waiter on how to clean the dosa tawa (with the clean side of an oiling broom, yeah you are right..its a broom but not used for sweeping the floor ), then on the size of the dosa (not too big....not too small....but with a medium dia.), next on the vegetables to go over dosa (onion, carrot etc), then comes a surprisingly 16 tsp ghee over that dosa (we can never do that to our waistline...hi...hi), and to shower-spread some idly-podi all over that and to bring that dosa folded with a golden-red hue. But to his dismay, after hearing the whole mouthwatering recipe, the waiter will shout 'UTHAPPAM for this table' to the chef, as if he has not heard anything. One cannot stop laughter on seeing the customer vadivelu's disappointed face now:)

But how can I, the obliging housewife (hey! just for fun...hi...hi),ignore my regular customer's (hubby's) wish to get a same dosa like Vadivelu's? So I made it for him with just 1 tbsp ghee and not that 16 tbsp...let it be a secret:)

If you watch this video, the next thing you may want will be this vegetable uthappam. So I have narrated this vegetable uthappam recipe for my friends with everything in that ingredient list except the ghee part:)

Enjoy!

Vegetable uthappam tastes great with a sambar and coconut chutney combo:)

Ingredients:

Dosa / idly batter - 2 cup
(thosai mavu)
besan flour - 2 tbsp (optional)
baking soda - 2 pinch
ghee - 2 tbsp
sesame oil - 2 tbsp
onion - a handful for 1 dosa
green chilly - 1/2 for 1 dosa
carrot - 1
idly podi - 2 tbsp
curry leaf , cilantro - a handful

Method:

Take required quantity of sour idly batter. Add baking soda, besan flour and mix the batter briskly for few times. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Heat a dosa tawa. Drizzle 2 drops of sesame oil over the pan.
Using a clean cloth or wooden spatula rub the oil uniformly over the tawa.
Take a ladle of batter and pour it gently over the tawa and spread it to a thick but small dosa (6 inch dia. approximately). Reduce the flame to medium heat.
Spread the finely chopped onion, carrot, chilly, curry leaf, cilantro over the uthappam. Pour some sesame oil + ghee around and over the dosa.
Strew a tsp idly milagai podi over the uthappam.
(Place a dome shaped lid to cover it. The uthappam should be cooked in that steam to get a spongy texture inside. This step is optional, but I prefer this)
After few seconds flip the uthappam and let it cook the other side for less than 30 seconds. Take out the dosa Again increase the flame, apply oil and repeat the above process to make as many uthappam as we need.

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot with Coconut chutney and sambar.
Other best combinations are Arachi vitta sambar, groundnut chutney.
Once we start making the uthappam, we have to serve it immediately to get that true taste.

Tips:

We can add any left over poriyal like beans poriyal, cauliflower fry, cabbage fry etc also as topping.
Add a tbsp of besan flour to every cup of dosa batter to get a golden red uthappam.
Sour dosa batter can only give a delicious uthappam. If its not so, then add some desi yogurt/ buttermilk and leave for a few hours or start preparing immediately.